


57 Rose Street

by Lady_Bluebird



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eren Yeager Is a Ray of Sunshine, Existential Angst, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Ghost Eren Yeager, Ghost Sex, I wanted this to be pure fluff but it's a ghost au so that was never realistic, Lawyer Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) is Whipped, Levi is crabby, M/M, Morning Sex, Switching
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:01:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22043743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Bluebird/pseuds/Lady_Bluebird
Summary: When Kenny leaves Levi his house after he passes away, Levi inherits more than he expected, namely a sweet, infuriating, restless ghost named Eren.
Relationships: Levi Ackerman/Eren Yeager
Comments: 29
Kudos: 118





	1. Take Me Back

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've had for a while, and I recently felt inspired to sit down and write it. It's loosely inspired by [this Tumblr short](https://lady-bluebird-luv.tumblr.com/post/161181805836/warmth) that I wrote a while ago. I think that this is going to be a fairly short fic. I'm also using it as an excuse to experiment a little stylistically/tonally, so thanks for joining me!

Marian Park was the kind of suburb where couples with names like Linda and Robert settled down to raise their two children and a golden retriever. It has neighborhood carpools for the high schoolers who played football and Fourth of July potlucks. Most of the moms liked scrapbooking and unironically adored anything stamped with "Live, Laugh, Love". A lot of the dads wanted their children to go to business school once they reached college. Said kids thought they were hot shit because their parents bought them Lexuses for their sixteenth birthdays, and they liked to pretend that they were edgy and badass by playing rap music too loudly and sharing videos of popping pills to their equally vapid followers on Instagram and Snapchat. 

It was, in other words, exactly the wrong place for Levi Ackerman to live. Why Kenny had a house here, he didn’t know. Probably to fuck with him even after death. Stepping out of the car, Levi surveyed the home his uncle had left him to deal with. It was more or less what he had expected to find: Peeling paint. Cracked windows. A sagging porch, and drunkenly leaning mailbox. Dubious stains on the curtains. The house next to it, Levi noted warily, was overrun by a garden of what looked like carnivorous plants. Levi sighed. Given how sudden Kenny’s death had been and how quickly he had planned the trip to Trost, he couldn’t afford to be picky about housing. At least the place was free, excluding the property tax. He would fix the place up and then either rent or sell it so that he could move back to Mitras as soon as possible. 

Hauling his suitcases up the porch and fumbling for the house key, he noticed with horror that the keyhole had spiderwebs in it. Jesus Christ. Had the house been like this when Kenny bought it? Is that how he had been able to afford it? What had he used it for? Levi was seriously concerned that it might hide a meth lab. That would be the end of selling the house, not to mention that he might get cancer from whatever toxic fumes were left behind. 

The door screeched open on its hinges. As Levi scanned the interior, he made a list of supplies to pick up from the local hardware store. Cockroach traps, a mop. Bleach. All of the bleach. 

No sooner had Levi gingerly lowered his suitcase onto the questionably solid floor than a crash and a scream rattled the windowpanes. He spun around. A mop of brown hair lay sprawled over the foyer. A head and a pair of glasses popped up. “Woah!” the person jabbed a finger at the nearest spiderweb. “Do you have any idea how rare this spider is?” They asked a staring Levi. “I must have it!”

“Who are you,” Levi demanded, “and how did you get in here?”

“You left the front door open,” The person said. A dust covered hand was shoved in his face, and Levi jerked backward to avoid being poked in the eyeball with fingernails so caked with dirt that they looked solid black. “I’m Hange. Do you live here now?”

Levi was fairly sure that it wasn’t advisable to give that information out when it was clear that this Hange liked to go into other people’s houses uninvited. “Why do you want to know?”

Hange cackled. “Because that would make us neighbors!” Oh. Oh, no. “I’m a biology professor at Trost university. I live in the red house next store.” 

The one with the Venus flytraps. “Well, you can’t find specimens here anymore. I’m cleaning this shithole up.” 

Levi started by swatting Hange’s rare spider the floor with a dishrag and stamping on it. Hange screamed. Levi winced. At this rate, he would be deaf in a week. 

“What are you doing?” Hange cried. “He had his whole life ahead of him!”

“As your test subject,”

“As a useful and valued specimen!” Levi doubted that there was much of a distinction. Hange looked like they were on the verge of tears. 

Sighing, Levi took in the variety of spiderwebs and creepy-crawlies he caught scuttling around the edges of the room. This was going to be a bitch to clean up.

“Hey, Four-eyes,” He said. “If you help me clean the house, you can have all the bugs you find.”

He made a mistake in making that deal. Hange was next to useless for cleaning, fully consumed in balancing (and breaking a few) glass jars to store her new pets in. She even brought in her assistant and maybe-partner, Moblit, even though Levi never extended an invitation to him.

The first few nights sleeping in the house were disgusting. When Levi tried to take his first shower, copper-smelling sludge spewed out of the pipes. When he tried to sink into one of the armchairs after a long day of cleaning, a colony of ants swarmed out of the cushions. The mattress he slept on (Not the one from the bed. Who the fuck would want to sleep in a bed where Kenny Ackerman had probably fucked some poor girl? Not Levi.) might as well have been a steel board. Occasionally, the house would creak and rattle, and although it was probably just the roof or support beams about to mercifully come crashing down on his skull, the noise made Levi’s skin prickle more than he would care to admit. 

The arrival of the movers was a blessing. The house was steamed, fumigated, sprayed by exterminators, and all but turned into a medical-grade sterile facility. Relieved and satisfied, Levi began to turn his attention to the outside of the house. It would need to be repainted, and the garden, which was little more than unidentifiable twigs, should be replanted. 

Occasionally, Levi found fingerprints smudged on the windowpanes. Objects would be out of place. When he challenged Hange, they denied any and all guilt. Levi gave up and cleaned the windows every morning. After a week of berating the empty air while violently scrubbing the windowpanes, the smudges stopped appearing. Levi woke up to find flowers on the counter, a surprisingly touching gift from Hange. When he thanked them, they shot him a confused look. 

After several weeks in the house, Levi felt started to feel more on edge than he had when he first moved in. The back of his neck prickled constantly, and he couldn’t help but feel like someone was always right behind his shoulder. It was stupid, of course. There was nobody there. But Levi didn’t understand why he had become so paranoid. He wasn’t a stranger to living alone, so why did he feel creeped out now? 

Oh God, it was probably the meth lab fumes. 

Two and a half weeks after moving into 57 Rose Street, Levi found a stranger in his house for the second time. Coming downstairs for breakfast, he stopped dead when he saw the man standing in his kitchen. “Who the fuck are you?”

The man whipped around, eyes wide. He looked almost as startled as Levi felt. He looked very young – he couldn’t have been older than twenty – and had wide, sheepish emerald eyes. He was shockingly attractive, lean and lithe and tan, looking like a spooked deer.

“Um.”

“What are you doing in my house?” Levi demanded. The kid looked too scared and well-groomed to be a thug, but Levi was tired of strange people inviting themselves into his home. 

The young man wavered for a moment. “I, uh – Oh, fuck it. I live here. This is my house.” 

Of all the lies that Levi had expected the stranger to tell, that was not one of them. “Are you a squatter? I’m familiar with the law, and you don’t have a right to be here.”

The man looked pained. “Kind of?” 

“What kind of answer is ‘Kind of?’” Levi asked. 

The man mumbled something under his breath that Levi didn’t catch. He stepped forward. The intruder took a step back, eyes widening and flitting around the room, looking for a way to escape. “What did you say, Brat?” Levi asked. 

“Look,” The man said, “You were never supposed to see me, okay? I’ll leave and you’ll never seem me again. I’m sorry for intruding. Just pretend that this was all a weird dream.” Warming to the idea, the man nodded. “You’re still asleep in bed, and the birds outside of the window will wake you up any second n – ow! Hey, what are you doing?”

Levi seized the man’s wrist and dragged him toward the front door. “I’m not dealing with this shit,” He muttered. The man yelped as Levi threw him out onto the front porch.

“Wait -,” 

Levi shoved his again. “Get out, asshole. What the fuck is wrong with people in this neighborhood? Does everyone accept visitors at all hours of the day? Do you like to watch each other while you sleep?” Was this like one of those horror movies where the neighborhood seems normal and idealistic, and then everyone turns out to be part of a cannibalistic cult? 

Levi pushed the man again, trying to get him off the lot as soon as possible. The man stumbled, his eyes widening, arm reaching behind him to catch his fall, and then suddenly – 

Levi blinked. Nobody stood on the lawn. 

“Hey, look Mister, let’s talk this out,” Levi spun around. The man stood on the porch, arms raised in surrender. 

“What the fuck”

The man sighed. “Look, I know this is weird and you’re probably really confused – Watch it!” 

Levi tried to pull the strangely fast man off of the lot again. The same thing happened. He tried twice more. Again, he got the same result. 

Forget meth fumes. What were those natural gases that could seeps up through your basement and induce hallucinations? Radium? Radon? He needed to get a testing kit.

“What are you doing?” Levi asked the man. The man hesitated. 

“Let’s go inside, and I can explain.” 

Levi didn’t want him inside of his house, especially after trying so hard to remove him, but since there was not a good chance that the man was a figment of his imagination, he went along with it. “Fine.” 

The brunet fidgeted at the kitchen table. “Spill,” Levi demanded. “Right now.” 

The other man chewed his lip and kept his eyes fixed on the tabletop. “You won’t believe me.” 

“You’re probably right, but whatever just happened on the lawn was weird as fuck, so tell me the truth.” 

The man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve lived in this house for thirty years.”

Levi stared. “Sure.” He knew he looked young for his age, but there was no way this man was thirty, even if he was generous with his estimates of the brunet’s age. He was too young. 

The brunet looked defeated. “I died ten years ago, and I’ve been stuck here ever since.”

Levi didn’t say anything for a long time.

“So…?” the man prompted him.

“You’re saying you’re a ghost.”

The brunet laughed shakily. “Yeah,”

Levi nodded slowly. “Okay.”

The other man raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

“Yep.”

“Do you believe me?” The hope shinning in his eyes disarmed Levi.

“No,” Levi said, and he felt a little bad when he saw how the other man deflated. “but I also think you’re a figment of my imagination, so I’m not going to disagree with you.” 

Levi got up. It was nearly ten, and he hadn’t had his morning tea. That was also probably why he was so willing to accept the man’s explanation. He didn’t have the energy to deal with any bullshit yet. 

“Does this mean that I can stay?” The brunet asked tentatively. Those puppy dog eyes killed Levi. 

Levi shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.” 

That cheered the brunet up a little.


	2. Swimming In My Soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've noticed that everything I'm subscribed to on AO3 has been updating like crazy in the last couple of weeks because of COVID-19-related closures and lockdowns. I, too, suddenly have lots of free time. The next DSM update is in editing and should be up in the next few days, but here's this in the meantime. Thank you to everyone who gave this new fic a try! The initial positive response was very heartwarming and exciting. I apologize for any typos in this update, and enjoy!

The ghost’s name was Eren Jäger. Levi looked him up. He was, indeed, dead, or at least someone who had the same name and looked exactly the same was. His parents, Grisha and Carla Jäger, died fifteen years ago in a nursing home on the other side of the city. He has an adopted sister who was a doctor at a local hospital that Levi remembered driving past when he first arrived. Eren had been officially declared after a two-month long disappearance with no leads or witnesses. His family and best friend, a blond now-academic named Armin, had fought the morgue and the police department, but to no avail. Given that Eren was a permanent resident of his old home, their protests had been in vain. Levi didn’t tell Eren that he knew any of this. 

Ghost status aside, Eren was very alive. He ate, he drank, he couldn’t walk through walls, and, as Levi knew from the times when Eren sidled up against him so their legs or arms or chests pressed up against each other, he was very warm and very solid. 

“Where does your food go?” Levi asked him over dinner, watching Eren shovel a forkful of pasta into his mouth. Eren was almost alarmingly enthusiastic about Levi’s cooking, and he ate enough for a family of eight, but Levi enjoyed having someone to cook for and eat with more than he thought he would. 

Eren shrugged and mumbled a “I don’t know,” around the mushed penne in his mouth. 

“Do you shit?” Levi asked.

Eren coughed, his face turning - _and endearing_ – beet red. “No?” He said after he swallowed. “I don’t know, I guess whatever I eat goes off into the ghostly void or something like that.” He frowned at his plate. “Unlike me. I don’t know why I’m still here.” 

Levi has never asked Eren what he knew about his own death, and Eren hasn’t offered up the information. Eren sighed. “I don’t know why I’m in this place and the old owner isn’t,” He added. 

“Kenny’s not here?” That was a relief. The last thing Levi needed was his invisible uncle watching him on the toilet in the morning or while he slept. 

Eren made a face. “Yeah, that guy. He was barely around, but he was awful. Brought a lot of sketchy people here. I’m surprised that the cops only came to check things out a few times.” 

“Did he ever make drugs here?” Levi asked. 

“No,” Eren said, which was a pleasant surprise, “but he definitely stored some in the basement. There were always weird crates and pallets down there.” 

Levi groaned. Of course there had been. The basement had been the worst part of the house to fix up. Water damage had softened some of the walls, large cracks had formed from the house settling, and Levi had caught a few patches of slime mold creeping up corners of the room. Part of the floor and wall were noticeably newer than the rest of the room, so either the water damage had become so bad that even Kenny had to do something about it, or Kenny had buried his unlaundered money underneath the house, Escobar-style. 

“Did you ever reveal yourself to him?” Levi asked Eren.

“No,” The ghost flushed. “I, um, usually don’t tell people I’m here. Just you.” 

Levi wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he didn’t. He might have been socially inept, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what Eren was signaling when he ignored Levi’s personal space, when he brushed up against him too closely, when his touches lingered for too long, when he didn’t look away when Levi caught him staring. 

He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Nothing could come of it. Levi’s tie here was only temporary. He couldn’t have a fling with Eren, no matter how attractive he was. 

But he also didn’t discourage the increasingly bold attention, so whatever unpleasant severance awaited him, he’d brought it upon himself. And there would be unpleasant severance. He could see it over the horizon. 

“What do you do to pass the time?” Levi asked Eren on a rainy day, watching the new topsoil and mulch that Levi had put down two days ago crumble into mud. 

Eren shrugged. “Watch TV, mostly or read. Or people-watch.” He blushed. 

“Mmm.”

“I don’t like watching the news though,” Eren added. Levi didn’t blame him. It was always grim. Crimes, the tanking economy, the idiot president, and, recently, a tropical storm brewing along the coast, complete with talk of evacuations.

Eren flashed Levi one of his million-watt smiles. “It’s not so bad, though, all things considered. I don’t know what else is out there. Probably nothing.”

Levi personally agreed, but the thought of reaffirming Eren’s opinions broke his heart. 

“What do you do for a living?” Eren asked. 

“Civil law,” Levi said. “I work in Maria, but I’m away on paid leave right now.”

Eren’s expression become cloudy. “Oh.” He watched the wilted tulips. 

Levi originally wanted to spend most of his time in the house because he didn’t want to interact with the neighbors, but he didn’t mind Eren’s company. The ghost was funny and sweet, and a good cook for his age (Did his age include the years that he’d spent being dead?), and Eren was surprisingly quiet even after revealing himself. He even subdued his restless nighttime pacing, tiptoeing around the house. 

“You don’t have to pretend you don’t exist at night,” Levi had told him once. “I don’t sleep well. You aren’t going to wake me up from everything.” But Eren did it anyway.

“What are you doing?” Eren asked, peering at the laptop screen over Levi’s shoulder. 

“Trying to get a sense of how much I could get for this place,” Levi said, scrolling through the local listings. It looked like the answer was somewhere in the range of “way too fucking much for its size”, since housing prices in the city seemed to have exploded in recent years. 

When Eren didn’t say anything for a moment, Levi pointed out, “I’m not staying here forever.” _Here it comes._

“I know.” Eren pulled away. They hadn’t even been touching, for once, but Levi felt noticeably colder when Eren retreated. “I thought you’d rent it out or something like that.” He looked like he’d lost some of his saturation. He glared at the wall, and Levi felt the burn of frustration. The doorbell rang. 

Hange came by. Levi meant to prevent their attempts to visit, although, admittedly, they’d grown on him, but she appeared, Moblit in tow, and Eren let them in. 

“Eren!” Hange threw their arms around him. “Long time no see! I can see that you and Shorty have gotten cozy -,” 

“Shorty?” Levi cut in. 

“How are you lovebirds?”

“Lovebirds?”

Moblit coughed. 

“We’re not,” Eren said, coolly. Hange looked at him sharply. 

“Do you want any tea?” Eren asked them. Despite his irritation, Levi felt overwhelmingly proud. 

Hange spent their visit examining the two of them in a way that Levi would bet they scrutinized their specimens. 

Hange looked around the house and whistled. “This joint looks much better than it did a few weeks ago.” They sighed. “It’s a tragedy, though. I’ll have to search for test subjects elsewhere.” ‘Tragic’, Levi decided, was relative. 

“And no tattooed men with guns coming over at three in the morning,” Moblit approved. 

“I’m glad I can meet your high standards,” Levi replied dryly. Normally, Eren would have laughed, but he frowned into his teacup.

Hange narrowed her eyes at the brunet, and then at Levi, and then back at Eren. 

They cornered Levi while he cleared the table. “What did you do to him?” The scientist demanded. 

Levi pried their hand off of his arm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hange scoffed. “Sure you don’t. Before you moved here, I have a sad Eren. When you first came, I had a happy Eren. Now he’s morose again. What happened?”

Levi sighed. “Nothing happened. I let him know that I’m selling the house and moving back to my job, which is true, and he decided to sulk. Which, first of all, I don’t know what he expects me to do -,” Why did he spill this out to Hange? People who could crack him open so easily made him nervous. “What would you rather I do, lie to him?”

Hange made a pained sound. “Oh, Levi.” They reached out and patted his shoulder. They hadn’t washed their hands, but Levi didn’t push them off. 

“I know what he’s thinking, but it’s better not to lead him on,” Levi defended himself. “I don’t have anything to give him, Hange.” 

“Are you sure about that?”

Eren didn’t show his face for the rest of the evening. Levi, lying in bed later that night, was about to give up and try to sleep, but he saw the curtain rustle. The windows were closed, and the house wasn’t drafty. 

“Are you there, Eren?” The silence of the room deepened. Then, as if via teleportation, Eren appeared by the windowsill. 

“I overheard you talking to Hange,” He said. 

“Do you think I’m wrong?” Levi asked. 

“Yes,” Eren answered immediately. “I’m attracted to you. You know that. I know that you’re attracted to me, too. You didn’t deny it. Don’t torture both of us.” 

“Like I’ll torture us both when I leave?” Levi asked. 

But Eren had an answer for that, too. “I’ve already been tortured here,” He said quietly. “Do you have any idea how horrific it is, to watch the world change around you, to know that you’re stuck here forever and all the company you have, Hange or Moblit or whoever, is going to leave you eventually, even if they don’t want to? That’s torture. Torture is finding a kind, beautiful person who then tells you that, even though he wants you, he really doesn’t, and who knows who you’ll get next?

Eren’s chest heaved, and his eyes were glassy. 

“I don’t care if it’s fleeting,” He told Levi. “I want it. It can’t hurt more than I already do.”

“You say that now,” Levi said. It wasn’t only the fleetingness of their potential tryst. What did Eren expect from him? He was going to be disappointed. 

“Kiss me,” Eren bit out. “I can take it,”

Levi wasn’t sure if he could be similarly resilient, but he doubted it, since he wasn’t resilient enough to disobey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay safe in the coming weeks, and please listen to all guidelines and directions given to you by your governments and health authorities. Many people where I live have been dismissive of what they've been asked to do, but they're working against public health and worsening the outbreak.


	3. Tell the Wolves I'm Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title stolen from the heartbreaking, challenging novel by Carol Rifka Brunt. Mood set by Glass Animals and Tame Impala.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody, sorry for the long wait! I've had some health issues recently (nothing COVID-related or extremely dangerous, thankfully) that have made writing motivation difficult to find, but I'm back. I've also gotten deep into some pretty extensive edits for one of my other fics, which are overdue and imperative, but also very time-consuming. This fic will definitely continue, though. I hope that all of you are doing alright and staying safe, wherever you are and whatever your situation is!

As with everything about Eren, kissing him didn’t feel like kissing a ghost. And, like with all Eren things, his kisses were the best that Levi had ever had. The sex was something else entirely. It made Levi wonder if Eren wasn’t something more supernatural than just a ghost. Levi had never considered himself to be a religious man, but… Well, he wasn’t articulate enough. It was amazing. Eren’s puppy dog-alpha wolf duality, which Levi was powerless against, was never more on display than in bed. 

Levi woke up with pleasant shivers running up and down his spine. Eren kissed his throat again. He’d started sleeping in Levi’s bed, and he was often the big spoon, so when Levi stirred, a muscled arm wound around his torso to keep him pressed against Eren’s chest. Levi groaned. “It’s seven-thirty in the morning, Eren.” 

“I know.” Eren pulled Levi closer, and Levi groaned again when Eren’s erection pressed against the cleft of his ass. 

It was early, and the bed was soft and warm, but Eren’s coaxing advances – always careful, always refusable, - were waking Levi up. “You don’t have to do any of the work,” Eren propositioned, pressing his hips more insistently against the curve of Levi’s ass. 

Levi laughed. “You sound like a needy fucking sixteen-year-old.” He stretched, intentionally grinding back against Eren. The other man groaned, tightening his grip on Levi’s hips and nipping on his ear. Levi sighed. “Fuck,” He obligingly lifted a leg so that Eren could open him up, turning his head to capture Eren's lips with a kiss. Eren made a happy noise and hooked a hand under Levi's raised knee, holding him firmly in place. Levi closed his eyes again, still enjoying the floating feeling of just waking up, as he heard Eren rummaging for lube in the bedside table’s drawer. 

Eren slowly rolled his hips into Levi from behind, sprinkling broken kisses down Levi’s cheek, neck, and shoulderblade. “Pace okay?” Eren groaned against his ear. 

“Mmm.” Levi kept his eyes closed, the warmth of his recent awakening mingling with the warmth and pressure blossoming in his navel. It was so domestic. Right before his orgasm washed over him, Levi recognized, with some alarm, how serendipitous this was. They could do this forever. 

Living with Eren was like basking in the sun all the time. After a warm, lazy awakening, a warm, lazy shower. Warm, lazy breakfast. Easing into the day. Eren made it hard to be tense or worried about anything, even the pile of cases that were building up in Levi’s absence. Erwin had sent some documents for Levi to look over when he told the other man that he would be in Trost for longer than he initially anticipated, and even when the legal jargon and complex, yet idiotic, civil suits threatened to crack Levi’s skull open, the warmth of Eren nuzzling into his shoulder or hovering on the edges of the house made it bearable. Eren was the biggest cuddle bear Levi had ever met, and, for whatever reason, he didn't find the constant contact suffocating the way he would with anyone else. 

Eren spent a good amount of time in the garden. He paced the lawn. He pruned the bushes. He stared at the petals. The flowerbeds by the street marked the bars of whatever cage he existed in. One neighbor, taking an interest in the house’s restoration, asked Levi about the handsome young man who frequented the property. It was irrational, but Levi disliked her curiosity. 

“You’re possessive,” Eren said against Levi’s shoulder as they watched the woman slink off, scalded. 

“Not really,” Levi said. Eren rolled his eyes. 

“It’s okay if you are,” Eren said. He nibbled on the curve of Levi’s ear. “I like it.” 

"Well," Levi decided, "Maybe a little bit,"

Now that 57 Rose Street no longer resembled a crack house, Hange’s den became the most conspicuous home in the neighborhood, a status that they, although not Moblit, embraced. Teenagers wobbled on their bikes as they slowed down on their way past the house, ogling Hange’s extravagant plants. To Moblit’s and Levi’s alarm, Hange capitalized on the attention by trying to rope particularly curious kids into becoming their "research assistants". The scientist was unquestionably brilliant, but it was probably for the best that their sabbatical would end soon and they would have to devote most of their time to teaching at the university. 

Neighborly antics and Eren’s attention aside, something constantly nagged at Levi. It especially reared its head at night, in bed with the other man, Eren’s lips running up his chest, and, one night, in the post-sex lull, Levi put his finger on it. 

“Eren, how much do you remember about your life?” He asked the ghost. Ghost. Levi didn’t like calling Eren that. 

Eren took so long to respond that Levi gave up on hearing an answer. “That was invasive -,” 

“Most of it,” Eren said slowly. “I was happy. I don’t know what happened at the end, though.” He was quiet again for a while. “I know I was at college, and then – I don’t know.” He stirred. “I don’t know how much it matters now, though.” 

It did matter, at least as far as Levi was concerned. Every time he anticipated Eren’s reaction to a joke, or correctly guessed what he would prefer to eat for dinner, or knew, when thinking about Eren, exactly what he would say at a given moment, Levi’s affection was offset by the anxiety that he didn’t really know much about the other man. 

Although, Levi reassured himself, holding Eren at night, that was different from not knowing someone at all. A lot of being able to understand someone was in their details. 

Life was good. Levi had built up enough trust and goodwill with Erwin over the course of their friendship and shared careers that he could afford to disregard the man’s questions about when he would return. Levi made arrangements to have the house appraised, but put them off. After a few more surly encounters with soccer moms, the neighborhood left Levi alone. 

Levi couldn't remember when he had cared about work so little and a romantic partner so much. He supposed he'd never really let himself, and although Eren would most likely turn into a reminder of why he'd kept himself so removed from love, the other man was also a powerful drug. 

They lived quietly for a while. Then the wolves came knocking, and there wasn’t any escaping the past’s reckonings. 

Two events changed everything. 

First, Hange had a dinner guest.

They’d mentioned it in passing. A colleague who had been kind enough to edit Hange’s most recent manuscript was going to be fed as payment. When Levi, siting with Eren and drinking his after-dinner tea, saw the car pull into Hange’s driveway, he didn’t think anything of it. 

Eren leaned over his shoulder. “Who’s that?” He asked absently. 

Levi shrugged. “Some other career nerd.” Eren laughed. 

The car door opened. “Must be someone new,” Eren said. “I don’t recognize – oh my God!” He jerked back from the window, nearly slamming into the dinner table behind him. Levi spun, puzzled and alarmed. Eren’s face was ashen. 

The man who stepped out of the car was a small one with a blonde bowl cut and a thoughtful expression that Levi got the sense he probably always wore. “What’s wrong?” He asked Eren. 

Eren wrenched his head to the side in a jerky shake. “I – that’s Armin,” He spoke the name like it burned him. 

The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Levi couldn’t quite place it. He watched Hange open the door and greet the man, who smiled widely and offered the scientist a bottle of wine he’d brought with him. 

“How do you know him?” Levi asked Eren. “Has he hurt you?”

“No,” Eren said quickly. “No, never.” He made a point, Levi noticed, to stay out of view of the window. “He was my friend. My best friend.” Staring at the closed door that Armin had disappeared behind, Eren’s expression became agonized. “He looks so much older than I remember him, but that’s him. I could never stop recognizing him.” 

Eren didn’t stray from the window for the rest of the night, staring at Hange’s house with am unblinking, reptilian intensity. Occasionally, his lips moved with silent words, mouthing old conversations, and when Levi tried to approach him, he looked at the man with alien eyes like pits of hungry, liquid black. When Armin left hours later, Eren devoured the blonde with his gaze, stamping every movement and detail of his appearance into his mind. 

Finally turning away from the window, Eren put a hand over his mouth. “Eren?” Levi questioned, rising from his armchair vigil and approaching the man with an outstretched hand. Eren shook his head and clenched his eyes shut. 

“I feel so – how could I have stopped thinking about him? I recognized him, but not until I saw him. I didn’t know that he and Hange were friends. How could I have not crossed paths with him before now? He’s been so close this whole time.” 

Levi might not have been the most emotionally literate person in the world, but “You probably just repressed those memories.”

“Still.” Eren shook his head, face ashen. He turned to Levi with pleading eyes. 

Eren didn’t let himself sob, but he cried. Levi cocooned Eren in his arms as Eren shook into his shoulder. 

That was the first push. Levi caught Eren stalking Armin online, scrolling through the photo albums on his facebook profile. "He went to Harvard for grad school." Eren smiled. "I'm not surprised. He and Pieck - one of our other friends - they were - are - brilliant. If they weren't so passionate about their research, they probably would rule the world by now." 

There were a million other comments. Levi chose new books to read, and Eren said thoughtfully, "Armin was always a bookworm." When Levi tested a new dish, Eren said, "Armin always teased me about not having any practical life skills." When Levi mulled over whether or not remodeling the basement would be worth the effort, Eren said "Armin and Mikasa and I used to make blanket forts down there." It was like a dam had broken. 

“I think you need to figure out how to talk to Armin,” Levi finally said one night as the two of them flipped through TV stations, Levi's head in Eren's lap and the brunet's hands in his hair. Eren’s eyes widened. “You clearly want to, but you've avoiding it." 

Eren averted his gaze. “How am I supposed to approach him?”

“We can ask Hange for help,” Levi massaged soothing circles into Eren’s wrist., feeling his pulse jump under his thumb. “But I think it would be good for you to do.”

Eren looked troubled. 

"You think he'll believe me if I tell him I'm dead?" He asked bitterly.

"I did, and I'm a skeptical old fart who didn't know jack shit about you. Armin knows how you act. If he wonders whether you're a hallucination or an impostor, he'll be able to tell. Besides, Hange and I will be here to back you up."

Eren hesitated.

“If he’s your best friend, he won’t reject you,” Levi soothed. 

Eren sighed. “He was my best friend,” He corrected. His normally vibrant eyes clouded. “I should let him move on. If I expose myself, even if he accepts what he’s seeing and doesn’t torture himself thinking that he’s sick – I died a long time ago. He has a life. He looks happy. What’s the point in tearing open all of his old scars?”

“Closure,” Levi supplied. "I don't know him, but I would imagine he has a lot of questions that make being completely happy difficult." Eren’s dull expression scared him more than anything else. 

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Eren said. 

Levi understood his worries. He had the same fear. Nevertheless, he was willing to brute-force reality into giving Eren, and, by extension, everyone in his life, a happy ending. It's been a long time since he fought hard as hell for something, but he hasn't forgotten how do. 

If Levi got through law school, he can get Eren through this. 

The second awakening also involved Hange. A while after Armin’s appearance, Eren, failing to verbally coax Levi into taking a break from his work, had decided to try a new tactic. The tickle of Eren’s hand slipping under Levi’s shirt did an alarmingly good job of scattering his thoughts, and Levi was on the verge of giving in when an explosion rocked the windowpanes. Both men leapt to their feet and flung the front door open, staring at the smoke leaking out of one of Hange’s windows. 

“Call 911!” Levi barked, pointing toward the kitchen, and Eren scrambled to the phone as Levi hurried across the lawn. “Hange!” He banged on the front door. “Moblit!” When nobody answered, Levi shouldered the door open and stumbled into the house, putting a hand over his mouth to avoid the thick, eye-watering smoke. He found the couple in their charred kitchen, the counter remodeled with a small, smoking crater. 

Hange coughed. “I misjudged the magnesium,” They explained. Moblit, groaning, clutched his skull. 

Once the ambulance arrived, the couple was strapped into stretchers and loaded into it in front of a gape-mouthed crowd. Eren and Levi watched it leave silently. Eren was trembling. 

“They’re going to be alright,” Levi told him. 

Eren nodded and curled himself against the raven’s chest. It was a reaction that overwhelmed Levi with sudden protectiveness. 

Indeed, given the extend of the damage, Hange and Moblit emerged relatively unscathed. Moblit was concussed, but thankfully hadn’t suffered any hearing loss or other permanent damage. Hange, although burned badly, would heal well, albeit with scars. The scientist’s injuries resigned them to full-body bandages, which they cheerfully proclaimed would make the perfect mummy costume for Halloween next week. Levi’s was irrationally angry at the idiot’s reckless mistake, but he was relieved. Life would be okay. 

A few days after the couple was released from the hospital, Eren walked into the living room, shedding his gardening gloves. “Levi.” 

“Mm?” Levi looked up from his book. Eren’s face was blank. He bookmarked it and set it aside for now. “What’s wrong?”

“Hange and Moblit got their doctor to do a house call.” 

“Yes,” Levi agreed slowly. 

“It’s my sister.” Eren said flatly. “It’s my fucking sister.” He scrubbed his face. “I saw her. I don’t think she recognized me, my hat hid my face and my back was to her. But she saw me.” Eren laced his fingers behind his head and made a wrecked sound. “I think the universe is really trying to fuck me up. This might really be hell.” 

Neither of them said anything for a while. The veins in Eren’s neck bulged. Levi drummed his fingers on the coffee table. Someone knocked on the door. 

Pause.

Another knock. Levi got up. There was a shadow behind the door. He opened it. “Hello?”

An Asian woman with a black pixie cut and high cheekbones stared back at him. “I’m sorry to bother you,” She said, her gaze darting to the house’s interior. Her eyes were wide and haunted. “Hange told me you moved in recently. Would you mind if I came in? I was just curious because this is my family's old house.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter! Drop a comment about what you thought, and if you liked the chapter, send me some love via leaving kudos. Also feel free to visit me on [ my Tumblr ](https://lady-bluebird-luv.tumblr.com/). I'll see you guys again soon!


	4. Am I Descending or Ascending?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa. A flood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thank you for all the continuous support, guys! This is a really indulgent little fic, so I'm glad you're enjoying the ride. This chapter is mostly a transition to the next one, which is going to be a very important update, but I hope that you enjoy it nevertheless.

In the front yard, a breeze nudged the tulips, the weight of their blooming heads sending them bobbing back and forth. It was sunny and cloudless. A pair of children ran down the street, a puppy hot on their heels, squealing. Mikasa stood in the doorway of Levi’s and Eren’s house.

Levi hesitated. “Well…” He glanced behind him, searching for Eren. He stood right behind Levi, his height – damn him – making his face visible to his sister over Levi’s head. But based on Mikasa’s lack of shock or horror, she couldn’t see Eren. The other man nodded to Levi very slightly. 

Levi opened the door wider. “Come in,”

It was Mikasa’s turn to hesitate. 

“It’s fine,” Levi said. “Come in. Do you want some tea?” 

Mikasa did not want any tea, but she did want to examine the house. “You cleaned it up nicely,” She said, touching the tasteful, soft yellow paint Levi had covered the graffitied walls with. 

“Thank you,” Levi said. Eren had found the spray-painted, unrealistically well-endowed t-rex in the kitchen humorous. Levi had not. 

“I’ve only seen this place once since I moved out, and I thought it was condemned,” Mikasa elaborated. She looked around the house like she was starved for it, scanning everything with the laser-focused, manic intensity of somebody desperate to commit every detail to memory. “How long have you been here?” 

“A couple of months,” Much longer than Levi had anticipated. “You said that you grew up here?” Fuck, he hated making small talk. He needed Eren to have conversations with people with him so that it wasn’t awkward. Where was Eren? He’d disappeared completely. 

“Yes,” Mikasa said, without elaborating, and walked upstairs.

She looked at all the furniture and decorations twice, like she thought they would turn into something else when she stopped paying attention. She also barely walked in a straight line, switching the angle of her shoulders, glancing behind her, dragging her feet and stepping sideways. It made Levi want to snap at her until he realized she didn’t want to show her back to any of the doorways for too long. 

Paranoia, maybe, but did she sense her brother? Levi had felt unsettled when he first arrived. He attributed to the house's disarray, but its renovations eliminated that explanation. 

“You’re Hange’s doctor?” He tried.

Mikasa nodded. “All things considered, they're very lucky to have the injuries that they have. I don’t know what they were thinking,”

“With those two, nobody does,” Levi agreed. 

“I know one of their colleagues,” Mikasa said. “He told me the same thing,”

“Small world,” Levi commented. It was funny how the lives of total strangers could be woven together by mutual connections. Things tended to work out, for better or for worse, in certain ways. Levi wasn’t one to believe in fate, but he also hadn’t believed in ghosts until recently. Life was fucking weird. 

As she walked through the house, Mikasa kept looking back at Levi with an evaluative expression that set him on edge. 

“Who was the man in your garden when I drove by?” She asked. 

“Local kid,” Levi said, heart pounding. “He helps out sometimes,” 

“Hange told me that.” Mikasa frowned. 

“You say that like you think I’m lying,” Levi said. 

“He looked familiar,” 

Her tone suggested more than casual familiarity. 

“Small world,” Levi repeated. 

Mikasa eyed doorways like she thought something might be hiding in their shadows. “I suppose so,” 

“Are you sure you don’t want any tea?” 

“The kid who helped out,” Mikasa probed, “does he come by often?” 

“He’s here occasionally,” Levi said. 

“When?” She pressed. 

“He doesn’t have a set schedule. It varies," Levi evaded. 

Mikasa shook her head. 

“Are you alright?” 

Mikasa shivered. “I’m sorry,” she said, “it’s not your fault, but…” Her gaze wandered over the wallpaper. “It’s very strange to be here,” Mikasa took a deep breath. She shook her head again, as if trying to dislodge a thought. “Are you the permanent owner?” 

Levi groaned inwardly. Could people stop asking him that fucking question? “For now. Once everything is redone, I’m going to find a buyer. You interested?”

Mikasa laughed shakily. “No, I can’t move back here. I think I should go,” She added, abruptly turning down the stairs. “Thank you for humoring me, though,” 

She didn’t need to explain herself. “It’s fine,” Levi said, walking Mikasa to the front door. “I’m glad that you like the renovations.”

“Well,” Mikasa said, “honestly, don’t get me wrong, it looks great, but sometimes I think this place needs to be torn down. There are too many memories here. I think it’s poisonous. I know that sounds terrible.”

“I understand.” Levi really did. He felt the same way about his childhood home. He’d been back to the shack where he’d watched his mother die exactly twice, and the second time was only to chuck a Molotov cocktail through the window. 

“Do you know what Hange and Moblit’s prognosis is?” He asked, opening the door for her. Levi realized that Mikasa already had her shoes on, and, after a moment of confusion, realized he’d been too distracted to ask her to take them off when she came into the house. He winced to himself. 

The doctor sighed. “They’ll be fine in a couple of weeks. I have to ask Armin to keep them out of the chemistry lab’s storage closet in the future.” She offered Levi a weak smile. “He’s my -,”

“The old friend of yours and Eren’s who’s Hange’s colleague,” Levi said without thinking. 

Mikasa’s smile froze. “What?” 

Shit. 

“I never told you that name.” Mikasa’s eyes darted back to the doorway of the house. 

“Hange mentioned it,” Levi said. There was no way to come out of this conversation not being an asshole, but he could at least avoid looking like a crazy person.

Mikasa stared at Levi like he was an alien, color draining from her face. "Do you...?" the question died in her throat. Her chest heaved. "How...?" She tried again. 

"I'm sorry," Levi said, "Hange mentioned him in passing -,"

"No." Mikasa robotically stepped down the stoop. “Have a good day, Mr. Ackerman,” Levi watched her rush to her car. 

Eren was in the atrium when he closed the door. 

“I could have touched her,” He said, half to himself. “She was so close to me,” 

“Fuck,” Levi ran a hand down his face, heart pounding. “I messed up,” 

“No, you didn’t,” Eren said. “She was already scared. See what I mean?” He asked Levi. “She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want to be reminded of me. It’s best if I let her and Armin live their lives without ever showing myself.”

“She suspects something,” Levi warned him. “Even before I said too much.” But Eren didn’t want to hear it. 

Even though Mikasa and Armin added to the laundry list of concerns hanging over the couple’s heads, the next few days passed normally. Eren’s nerves were tangible. When Levi held him, he was tenser than usual. Less easily comforted. Whenever Levi kissed Eren, and whenever they fucked, the taller man seemed listless, even when he initiated sex. Levi’s patience was wearing thin. 

One night, a window-rattling rumble jolted Levi awake. Eren, who had been sleeping fitfully recently, wasn’t next to him when Levi reached across the mattress for his hand. For a moment, thinking through sleep’s lingering fog, Levi thought that the noise was from Eren moving furniture or some similar shit. It wouldn’t be the first time Eren had taken it upon himself to handle unnecessary household chores because he couldn’t rest. He’d once spent a night elaborately reorganizing the cups and bowls in the cabinets by color and then by size, and when Levi had come down, ready to gripe about the rattle of ceramic echoing through the house, he’d been grudgingly impressed. 

But when another rumble rolled over the house, and Levi heard the drum of rain on the roof, he relaxed. Not restless Eren, a thunderstorm. He rolled over, pulled the blankets back up over his shoulders, and settled down to sleep again. 

The bedroom door slammed open with a bang. “Levi!” Levi jolted, turning to see a wide-eyed Eren in the doorway. 

“Why are your pants wet?” Levi blinked at Eren’s dripping clothes. “Were you outside in the rain? You know this is hardwood, it’ll stain-,”

“The basement,” Eren interrupted. “It’s flooding.” 

Levi let his head drop back against the pillow. Of course it was. 

Levi shuffled downstairs after Eren, who scrambled down them three at a time. “It’s a freak storm,” The brunet said hurriedly. “It’s never done this. The water is high, and I don’t know what to do…” He threw open the door to the basement and gestured helplessly down into the dark.

Levi flicked on the lightbulb. Inky, cold rainwater, high enough to cover half of the stairs, sloshed below them. 

“Fucking A,” Levi said. Thankfully, all of the circuitry was high enough up that the water hadn’t reached it, so they weren’t going to be electrocuted, but images of water damage and the bills that would come with danced through Levi’s head. “Was there anything important down there?” He asked Eren. Eren shook his head. “Alright, hold on. I’ll call a plumber.”

In a way, Levi thought as he flipped through the phone book, it could be worse. The basement needed to be renovated anyway. This would make those repairs more urgent and delay his return home even more. 

Well, his return to work and his house. 

“Levi?” Eren called. 

“What is it?” 

“The water’s getting higher.” 

God damn it all. Levi wished that this could be nothing but a bad dream. 

After he called the plumber, Levi called his insurance company and turned on the news. A tropical storm, barely mild enough to avoid being classified as a hurricane, was ravaging the gulf, and although they were too far inland to see the worst of it, heavy rain was sweeping across the country. Lakes and ponds in the area were flooding, and downtown Trost had to be shut down because of water collecting in low-lying intersections, forming car-trapping lakes. Over the roar of thunder, sirens wailed in the distance, not helping Levi’s pounding headache. The lights flickered. 

He and Eren didn’t go back to sleep, too paranoid about the water rising in the basement to rest. The two of them sat in the living room, Levi preparing candles in case the power went out, watching rain pour down the windows and rush through the streets like waterfalls and rivers. If the two of them hadn’t had Levi’s watch, they wouldn’t have known when dawn broke. It was still too dark and overcast outside for the sunrise to be visible. 

The plumber was late, held up by other similar emergency calls. When he came by, he peered down the steps to the basement, shone a flashlight into the darkness, and whistled. “I’ll start pumping the water out,” He told Levi, “but a lot of this isn’t going to be salvageable. You’re probably going to have to get the walls and floor redone. Otherwise, you’re looking at enough rot and mold to make this place unlivable.” 

Even though he had expected to hear it, Levi winced a little. “Perfect. How much is that going to cost?”

The plumber sucked on his lower lip for a minute. “Hard to say, but it’s not going to be cheap. Probably take a couple weeks to finish if it’s worked on every day, maybe a month. If you want, I know a local guy who can do it well and pretty affordably.” 

Bringing in a team of workers would be the most efficient way to fix the basement, but it brought up a whole host of issues. What if they saw Eren? What would it mean if they did? He could pass as alive, but what if he and Levi fucked up, and the contractors saw Eren doing something that the couple couldn’t explain away? Blame it on hallucinations caused by a natural gas leak under the house? Mass delusions? That would just create more problems. 

Make Eren hide until construction completed? Levi wouldn’t do that to him. 

“It’s alright,” Levi said. “Thanks, but I think I’ll tackle it myself.” He looked down at the sea forming under his home. 

The plumber side-eyed him. “That’ll take you some time,” 

“I know.” If Levi was honest, that was part of the appeal. He wasn’t ready to let go of Eren. “Don’t worry about it. How much do I owe you now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you guys doing? I hope that you're staying as safe and happy as your situation allows. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave me a kudo and/or comment if you enjoyed the update, and check me out on [my Tumblr](https://lady-bluebird-luv.tumblr.com/)


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